Tanning beds are widely known in the industry and are used by people to tan themselves in a rapid manner without the need to be outside or to be exposed to direct sunlight. Tanning beds are usually located in a commercial location with multiple beds in one building. The plurality of beds are usually spaced throughout the building, each in a separate room, to offer the customer a private, relaxing and peaceful atmosphere.
Conventional tanning bed systems such as the "RMD 2" by *Asterisk, Inc. allow the remote control of a plurality of tanning beds from a central location. A central control unit is capable of activating or deactivating any one of a plurality of tanning beds from one central remote location. The central control unit can also put any one tanning bed into a delay mode. The "delay period" is a preset amount of time that a customer has before the actual tanning time starts. This delay period is used to allow a customer to disrobe and prepare for tanning. The central control unit is also capable of pausing any individual tanning bed, which deactivates the tanning bed, but permits reactivation without any loss of tanning time.
A display unit is capable of indicating whether a tanning session is in progress (i.e., a tanning bed is activated), whether a tanning bed is in a "delay period", or whether a tanning bed is not activated. The display unit is also located at the central location to allow the tanning system operator to monitor the events occurring in the tanning system and control the system accordingly.
Conventional tanning systems, however, have many shortcomings with regard to the ease and cost of installation and expansion of the system, the efficiency of operating the tanning system, and the safety of the customer(s).
Tanning systems known in the art require the existence of dedicated wiring. This dedicated wiring is required from the central control unit to each of the plurality of tanning beds. This dedicated wiring is expensive and must be added to facilities or buildings before a remote tanning system can be implemented. Furthermore, once the dedicated wiring is installed, the tanning system cannot be changed or enlarged without the need to re-wire the dedicated wiring. For example, if a tanning system provider decided to add a tanning bed in another room, that provider must run dedicated wiring from the central control unit to the new room. Moreover, if the tanning system provider was to move one tanning bed from one room to another, the new room would require new wiring. The need for dedicated wiring can severely limit the ability of a tanning system provider to grow or modify his current tanning system.
Another shortcoming of conventional tanning systems is their inability to efficiently manage and control the occupancy of the tanning system. One of the desires of tanning system providers is to maximize the amount of time that the tanning beds are occupied, which means the amount of time that a tanning bed is not in use (i.e., for cleaning or operator's failure to recognize a tanning bed's availability) must be minimized. Conventional systems have no way to alert an operator as to the availability of a tanning bed or the cleanliness status of a bed.
Furthermore, conventional tanning systems do not have the ability to determine if a tanning bed within the tanning system is not functioning properly. This presents a problem to customers who may be placed in a tanning bed that, for example, has a lamp that is not working properly.